FCLE Founding Documents
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_ht45r6
1. Magna Carta (1215): First document to limit the powers of the king - signed in 1215.
Citizens could not be deprived of life, liberty or property without a lawful judgment of their peers or by law of the land.
Represented by the fifth amendment.
2. English Bill of Rights (1689): protected the rights of English citizens and became the basis for the U.S.
Bill of Rights.
3. Mayflower Compact: 1620 - The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41
men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth colony. Equal treatment under the law.
4. commen sense by thomas paine: It advocates for American independence.
5. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government: Humans have the right to life, liberty and property
and government was to protect those rights. Rejected "Divine Right" and believed in a social contract
6. *Virginia*: Rights: Listed in beginning: 16 sections, basis for US Bill of Rights
7. Declration of Independence: the document written to declare the colonies free from British rule. Has 3
Parts: The preamble, 27 paragraphs complaining about the king and the evidence, and the resolution of independence.
8. Treaty of Paris 1783: This treaty ended the Revolutionary War, recognized the independence of the
American colonies, and granted the colonies the territory from the southern border of Canada to the northern border
of Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.
9. North West Ordinance: a law passed by Congress in 1787 specified how western lands would be gov-
erned. Modern Day Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Inspired the 13th amendment.
National Jurisdiction
10. Articles of Confederation: 1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788 (weaknesses-no executive, no judicial,
no power to tax, no power to regulate trade)
11. Constitution: A document which spells out the principles by which a government runs and the fundamenta
laws that govern a society. The supreme law of the land
12. Bill of Rights: the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791; they ensure certain rights and
liberties to the people
13. Massachusetts Constitution: Model for the US Constitution
14. Abigail Adams: Wife of John Adams. During the Revolutionary War, she wrote letters to her husband
describing life on the homefront. She urged her husband to remember America's women in the new government he
was helping to create.
15. Emancipation Proclamation: Issued by abraham lincoln on september 22, 1862 it declared that all
slaves in the confederate states would be free
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Study online at https://quizlet.com/_ht45r6
1. Magna Carta (1215): First document to limit the powers of the king - signed in 1215.
Citizens could not be deprived of life, liberty or property without a lawful judgment of their peers or by law of the land.
Represented by the fifth amendment.
2. English Bill of Rights (1689): protected the rights of English citizens and became the basis for the U.S.
Bill of Rights.
3. Mayflower Compact: 1620 - The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41
men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth colony. Equal treatment under the law.
4. commen sense by thomas paine: It advocates for American independence.
5. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government: Humans have the right to life, liberty and property
and government was to protect those rights. Rejected "Divine Right" and believed in a social contract
6. *Virginia*: Rights: Listed in beginning: 16 sections, basis for US Bill of Rights
7. Declration of Independence: the document written to declare the colonies free from British rule. Has 3
Parts: The preamble, 27 paragraphs complaining about the king and the evidence, and the resolution of independence.
8. Treaty of Paris 1783: This treaty ended the Revolutionary War, recognized the independence of the
American colonies, and granted the colonies the territory from the southern border of Canada to the northern border
of Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.
9. North West Ordinance: a law passed by Congress in 1787 specified how western lands would be gov-
erned. Modern Day Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Inspired the 13th amendment.
National Jurisdiction
10. Articles of Confederation: 1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788 (weaknesses-no executive, no judicial,
no power to tax, no power to regulate trade)
11. Constitution: A document which spells out the principles by which a government runs and the fundamenta
laws that govern a society. The supreme law of the land
12. Bill of Rights: the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791; they ensure certain rights and
liberties to the people
13. Massachusetts Constitution: Model for the US Constitution
14. Abigail Adams: Wife of John Adams. During the Revolutionary War, she wrote letters to her husband
describing life on the homefront. She urged her husband to remember America's women in the new government he
was helping to create.
15. Emancipation Proclamation: Issued by abraham lincoln on september 22, 1862 it declared that all
slaves in the confederate states would be free
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